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North Country trail: The Minnesota national park you've never heard of

Jim Rakness pushes an all-terrain lawn mower down the North Country National Scenic Trail. The self-propelled mower is an essential tool for cutting back the summer plants that are rapidly growing over the trail. So is the mosquito netting.Evan Frost | MPR News

The North Country National Scenic Trail offers a 4,600-mile trek from eastern New York to North Dakota. Established in 1980, the 7-state trail begins in the Adirondack Mountains, winds through the Great Lakes, comes up the North Shore through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and wanders out onto the plains of North Dakota.

According to the National Park Service, more than 200 different public agencies and private interests participate in the oversight of the trail from beginning to end, including several in Minnesota.

This public-private partnership hearkens back to the earliest days of the National Park Service, which turns 100 this month, when the oversight of national parks was an ad-hoc endeavor.

Blue paint marks, called blazes, along the the North Country Scenic Trail keep hikers on track. The trail is accessible all year long.Evan Frost | MPR News

Trail volunteers are North Country's primary creators and caretakers. They worked under the guidance of the National Park Service to build the trail, and they continue to maintain it, section by section.

Midsummer storms regularly knock trees down in the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge, which the trail runs through. A small chainsaw wielded by volunteer Jim Rakness made short work of the small trees.Evan Frost | MPR News

Karen Stenburg and Jim and Jeri Rakness have been volunteering here for years. All are retired, and all are members of the Laurentian Lakes chapter of the North Country Trail Association. They helped build — and now maintain — the trail as it wends through Minnesota's Becker and Clearwater counties.

Stenburg moved back to Becker County, where she grew up, after retiring from teaching in Alaska. She has worked on the trail for 10 years, during which time she helped finish building the nearby sections of the trail.

For her, it's all a labor of love — and setting a legacy.

Karen Stenberg pushes a mower down a section of the North Country Trail that follows an access road.Evan Frost | MPR News

"If we didn't love it we wouldn't be out here," she said with a grin. "We hope it is something we can pass on to future generations — the love of the outdoors and the love of being active."

At the North Country trail's inception, the National Park Service worked with volunteers to determine a route. In Becker County, the Laurentian Lakes volunteers surveyed the trail route and engineered around the obstacles they encountered along the way.

When the trail section was first built, a Conservation Corps group dug the treadway — the ground that made up the walking path — in order to provide a lasting foundation for the trail. The changes the Corps makes to the ground should inhibit large vegetation from growing along the path.

In the wetland sections of the trail, volunteers surveyed, prepared and built a puncheon — a type of boardwalk — which raises nearly 1,000 feet of trail above the swampy ground. Volunteers carried the wood and materials in by hand,with some assistance from a 'power sled,' a motorized wagon.

Jeri Rakness uses an electric trimmer to clear brush off of a puncheon, a type of raised wooden walkway, on the trail.Evan Frost | MPR News

The Laurentian Lakes team's section of the trail traverses Itasca State Park, the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge and the land of many private landowners.

Volunteers typically mow the trail twice a year — in the spring and early fall — but when storms come through with heavy rains or high winds, the trails need to be checked for downed trees and washouts. That's when they wheel in large gas-powered mowers and heavy duty trimmers to cut back the plants and overgrowth that's gotten in the way of the trail.

Jim Rakness pushes an all-terrain mower down a puncheon over a bog area. The mower serves double duty as it carried the essentials; a chainsaw and plenty of bug spray.Evan Frost | MPR News

It's hard work, but it's worth it, Stenberg said.

"We have friends that love to quilt, we have friends that love to garden, but this is better than any of those pursuits," she said.

Jim Rakness pushes an all-terrain mower past a sign designating the North Country Scenic Trail where the trail heads into the woods from an access road in the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge.Evan Frost | MPR NewsView full galleryJeri Rakness clears overhanging branches from the trail. A clear path allows hikers with large packs full access to the trail.Evan Frost | MPR NewsTurkey tail shelf mushrooms roost along the side of the trail. The trail pulls the curtain back for hikers to view nature not normally accessible.Evan Frost | MPR NewsJim Rakness uses a chainsaw to clear lichen-encrusted trees that had been knocked down over the trail. Lichen covers nearly all of the exposed trees and rocks in the area.Evan Frost | MPR NewsBetween the labor of clearing the trail and wearing the gear to keep the mosquitoes at bay, water breaks are an essential part of maintenance sessions. Jim Rakness takes a drink while Jeri Rakness plans out the next part of trail clearing.Evan Frost | MPR NewsJim Rakness cuts through a tree blocking the North Country Trail. In this section of the trail, white pines and other deciduous trees make up most of the forest.Evan Frost | MPR NewsClick to view full size map of the North Country National Scenic Trail.Courtesy of the National Park Service